Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1887-09-17

silly to remain in a country where our
lives are considered of no value, and
men take up their guns and shoot us
down and go on as though nothing
had happened. Our daily press speak
of some of them lightly and some
they don't mention.
| White men are able to take care Of
themselves: A majority of the white
men are educated; a majority of the
colored men are ex-slaves. If a color
ed man meets a white man on equal
terms and gets the best of him, he is
mobbed like a highwayman, though
the white man is wholly in fault, and
the colored man simply defends him
self. Colored men, as general
thing, will not stand up to and pro-
tect each other against mob law, and
when they do, they have the judge,
jury, lawyer and public sentiment
against them-public sentiment hay
ing been carefully fred by the white
press.
Now as the emigration scheme is
being agitated in this State, and our
leading men have no political offices to
fight each other over, We ask them to
take these butcheries in consideration
and see in what way it can be rene
died. If laws are made in North
Carolina to punish colored men only,
then we want to know it.
While we believe in a manly indie
pendence, and proper exhibition of
discretion and manhood, we are the
last to insinuate or encourage retalia-
ton. If we can't get protection here,
we can 60 where we can get it. We
cannot afford to do evil for evil. God
will not be pleased with it. He gave
the colored man better soul than
that. Even our slave fathers, when
left in charge of "old missus, the
children, and the farm" while the
master was fighting to keep us in
bondage-prayed to God for freedom
and toiled to feed the family, the SOL
der and himself But his kindness
is soon forgotten. 0, base ingrati-
tude
Fortunes league has never been
mentioned in these columns, because
we did not understand it, neither did
we favor any kind of organization that
could make the colored man any more
political slave than he has been
In short, we feared the league but it
is claimed it will protect the colored
man. Is that so? Then let us con-
slider the league. Since we learn
from the published plan that it is not
confined to any race, sex or party, We
are willing to consider it. Let Mr..
Fortune send thousands of copies of
the form to leading men and women
in the South. Our people don't yet
know of it and the plan. Something
must be done or the colored people
will leave this Southland. We can
trace our ancestry back 40 years, yet
we can t trace them beyond the lines
Of North Carolina, and we have as
strong State pride as any white man
in it. We do not want to leave, but
something must be done.
If our white friends will accept the
situation in good faith, there will ke
no trouble. Let the white man I'M
derstand that the elevation Of the
Negro will not injure the white man
that his elevation is foregone con
clusion and is rapidly showing itself
that if we cannot be men on equal
terms with equal protection here, We
must separate. The sentiment in.
spired an hundred years ago, and has
made the white people of America :
great nation, is animating the Ameri
can Negro, and his cry is and will be
"Give me liberty or give me death.